A device of this kind is known (DE-AS No. 26 55 263).
In FIG. 1 of the drawing of DE-AS No. 26 55 263 there is shown a connecting linkage between a rotating shaft arrayed vertically in a housing, with a coupling lever arrayed on the upper end of the former, and a manual shift lever above the rotating shaft linked to the housing in the same manner as universal joint. The shift and selection motions are transmitted from the manual shift lever by means of a shifting shaft which is supported by a linkage support connected to the shifting shaft and the housing via ball and socket joints to the shifting shaft and the housing, and which is arrayed near the rotating shaft and essentially parallel to the rotating shaft.
A connecting linkage of this type is feasible when there is sufficient horizontal distance between the manual shift lever and the rotating shaft, when the length of the shifting shaft is sufficiently large with respect to the length of the coupling lever. The center of the knob of the manual shift lever and the center of the articulation between the shift rod and the coupling lever describe essentially the same space curves; the distortion remains small. However, this distortion increases with decreasing horizontal distance between the manual shift lever and the rotating shaft. When the distance becomes very small, a connecting linkage according to DE-AS No. 26 55 263 is no longer feasible.